Holman hosts hunger summit

There were approximately 12 in attendance with ideas and suggestions concerning hunger in Stuttgart, on the Grand Prairie and throughout Arkansas County.

Bill Shrum, reporter2@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Holman Heritage Community Center hosted a hunger summit Thursday to discuss the problems of hunger and how to deal with it in Stuttgart and Arkansas County.

There were approximately 12 in attendance with ideas and suggestions concerning hunger in Stuttgart, on the Grand Prairie and throughout Arkansas County.

"We need to use the sources with the center," Dianne Williams, chief program officer at the Arkansas Food Bank, said. "And how they can go about it."

Williams said 25.1 percent of adults are faced with food insecurity, which is not knowing where their next meal is coming from. In Arkansas County, 29.2 percent of children do not know where they will get their next meal.

"That is hunger right here in Arkansas County," Williams, a native of Stuttgart, said.

This is an excellent place for community conversation about the lack of food in Arkansas County and access the ability to find the resources to address it for a community in need, Williams said.

"We at Holman are excited about the potential to feel good about the purpose of this summit and to address it," Calvin Criner, director of the Holman Heritage Community Center, said.

The Arkansas Foodbank, which supplies healthy food in its network of about 300 member agencies in 33 counties in central and south Arkansas, is the largest non-governmental provider of emergency food in the state.

Through its network of food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters and other agencies, the Arkansas Food bank serves 166,200 different individuals every year and 23,000 Arkansans per week.

Who does the Arkansas Food Bank serve?• 35 percent of the members of households served by the Arkansas Food Bank are children under 18 years of age.• 27 percent of the households served include one or more working adults, an increase from 23 percent in 2006.• 78 percent of those served live on incomes below the Federal Poverty Level.• 52 percent of clients served by the Arkansas Food Bank report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel.• 39 percent had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.• 41 percent of client households served by the Arkansas Food Bank receive food stamp benefits.